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Published: January 14th 2008
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Us and the Cathedral Fig Tree Well, our last day in Cairns was an eventful one. We had booked on a tour to the rainforest which took in many different sites along the way. This tour was supposed to be more for the young 'uns so how the hell we got on it I don't know. (speak for yourself Woody you old duffer!) We were picked up at 8:30 by Hutch and his 'On The Wallby' tour bus. There were only 8 people on the tour and as we picked them
up we were introduced to them. It was a truely multicultural crowd withr representatives from the UK, Germay, Switzerland and Slovenia. I think Hutch was a stand up comedian in a former life - during the day he cracked jokes, thrilled us with campfire stories and played some God awful music!!! He was a great guide and knew his stuff.
The first stop was a petrol staion - WOW. This was amazing - A REAL AUSSIE PETROL STATION WITH PUMPS AND A MINI MART. The sound of the cameras flashing was deaffening.
Off then to the Cathedral Fig Tree. Now, this doesn't sound very exciting but it was amazing. Hundreds of years old and standing ....
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What a view !! feet tall you can't really explain how stunning and what a feat of nature it was. Several photo opperutities and a marriage proposal later (UK and Germany - it would never work!!) we headed back to the bus, stopping to get some info on the interesting (and dangerous) flora and fauna along the way.
Off to site 2 which was a stroll through the rainforest on the lookout for lizards, musky rat Kangeroo - go figure.... and other wildlife.
When you enter the rainforest the sound is amazing. It's just the constant chatter of the cicada's and birds and it's quite loud.
One of the guys on the trip was from London and worked in London Zoo in the reptile department (he even has two snakes of his own at home, which have apparently grown 1 ft each since he has been away!) and nearly wet himself with excitement when we saw a lizard type thing on a tree (all 2 inches of it).
Aswe walked through we were treated to more info on the various plant life, some massive acient trees and plants that can kill !! (feeling really positive about the day at this point!)
If we wern't
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Timotei falls !!! The ad was filmed here don't you know getting eaten alive by mosquitos and leeches ..... yes, leeches, it would have been more enjoyable but still good and very impressive.
Lunch time and off to our third site for a bite to eat and a swim in a fresh water lagoon that was a massive crater that housed turtles, water dragons (lizard type things) and fish - the turtles were cute but not very ninja like).
We had a dip while lunch was being prepared. On our way to the picnic tables a bloke pointed out a snake nesting in what looked like a hollow breeze block. Claire freaked. The snake didn't move and you couldn't see much of it but that was enough for her.
Lunch over and off again, this time to Milla Milla falls which is Aboriginal for 'much water'. Quite simply this was amazing, due to all the rain the area had recently the falls were in full flow and very spectacular. These were the water falls used in the Timote advert and we were made to do the famous hair flip!!!
Due to the heavy rain the water was all churned up and a dirty brown colour. This didn't stop our resident zoologist
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Us and another amazing waterfall from diving in and making his way through the raging water to behind the falls. I'll admit I was slighly aprehensive but Claire and I decided to go for it....... We swam through the murky water and as the falls were so strong there was a current that was pushing us to the side, we battled on though and Claire took the lead and we made our way up onto the rocks behind the falls. It was incredible... looking up you could see the water gushing over the top and all the people standing on the dry land thinking we were idiots in this water!!!! I am so pleased that we did it though and it was truely an invigorating experience!
After this stop we went on to our last site, this was another falls that was really fast due to the heavy rainfall. Woody and I decided that we were going to sit this one out as it was getting later and we had only just dried off... we watched the other guys swimming (most of who had only just got in on this stop) and were pleased that we were dry!
After this stop we made our way
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The rainforest to the 'on the Wallaby' hostel to drop 4 people off that were staying in the bush plattipus spotting (unfortunately we could not do this as we had to leave the next morning) Hutch had already been teasing me that there was a pet snake at the hostel and that he was going to have me holding it - I was not impressed and slightly aprehensive as we pulled up... as luck would have it though it had escaped the night before and was no where to be seen!!! I counted my lucky stars but still kept my feet up!!!!!! After a cup of coffee and a cookie we were on our way back to Cairns.
It truely was an amazing day and made us realise how much we were enjoying everything and the diversity that we were seeing... I wish we were staying for 6 months!!!!
At the end of such a fun packed, youthful day we decided it was only fair to eat our body weight in bbq ribs washed down by numerous beers..... when in Rome!!!!!
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Grandma
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You are SUPER bloggers!!! I'm really enjoying it all - can almost hear you talking. Looking forward to a picture show in February!! Lots of love Grandma xx